There's Always Room for Ponies
It's been an absolute eternity since I wrote any fanfiction, but Toy Story 3 has got my juices flowing again. Anyway, this is a drabble.
I own nothing, especially Toy Story 3.
...
Despite being free of the usual constraints and less-than-flattering behaviours of the average human, the average toy was not above a little pettiness every now and then. Therefore, Jessie's overenthusiastic use and abuse of Buzz' 'Spanish Mode' was punished accordingly when he found her weakness and picked at it.
Jessie liked animals. Especially horses. Well, what girl didn't? But since Jessie was a dyed-in-the-wool cowgirl (literally) her liking hinged on mildly obsessive. Buzz observed this one day when Hamm had been rapidly switching channels back and forth between a tawdry soap opera, the condensed Big Brother update, a British cooking show and a steeplechase. Jessie had been talking to Woody about something, but whenever the steeplechase was on, even for a fraction of a second, her gaze wandered towards the TV and she forgot what she was saying. Woody eventually got frustrated and wandered off, and as soon as he did Jessie marched over to Hamm and wrestled the remote off of him so she could watch the steeplechase.
So Buzz conducted what he called a 'social experiment' but most other people would call a 'prank.'
Every now and then, usually in conversation with another toy, he would find a reason to slip the word 'horse' or 'pony' into a sentence, and watch Jessie out of the corner of his eye to see if she reacted. She did. Every time.
"You know," he said once to Slinky, "I don't think Bonnie'll be going to school tomorrow. She sounded a little hoarse!" Jessie looked up from her book, startled and confused, and Buzz stifled a chuckle.
"I know you feel good about carrying around almost fifty dollars in cash now," he said on another occasion to Hamm, "but just remember; one of these days Bonnie's going to want you to pony up the dough."
Jessie had been on the other side of the room helping the Little Green Men stand on their heads, but as soon as she heard the trigger word she turned around to look for the pony, and the poor rubber toys went head over heels. Buzz sniggered uncontrollably, much to Hamm's disgust.
"There'll be trouble if she finds out you're doing a Pavlov's Dog on her, bub," the piggybank admonished. Buzz just nodded, snorting all the while.
The next time he did it, he just did away with subtlety and whispered 'Ponies!' as she was walking across the window ledge. This promptly earned Buzz the animosity of all the other toys, because Jessie was so astonished she jumped, and fell right out of the open window.
Luckily, she landed in a pile of cut grass that had built up in the garden, and only her pride was wounded. She refused to speak to Buzz for a week, which was also how long it took for the smell of mown grass to fade from her clothes. And as bad as Buzz felt about that, he simply couldn't stop. It was as addictive as...a very addicting substance.
...
Bonnie's parents were progressive people who didn't like to define their child by her gender and so Bonnie was encouraged to play with gender-neutral toys. Bonnie's classmate and brand-new BFF Imogen was not. Imogen was the girliest girl that ever girled, floral-sundresses-and-twin-ponytails-and-tea-parties-and-ballet-and-PONIES all in one chubby-cheeked package. She was the closest thing the little class had to an idol and her friendship was hotly battled over amongst the girls.
Until Bonnie won it by pulling a cowgirl out of her backpack one morning.
Imogen had squealed, clapped her hands together and begged bonnie to let her play farms with the cowgirl doll. And while Bonnie had little interest in playing farms (which seemed to mostly consist of Imogen having Jessie herd various animals from point A to point B) she basked in the adoration of her new friend and the envy of her classmates.
"You're so lucky," Imogen simpered. "I wanted a cowgirl too but Mummy couldn't find one for me. She gave me a Barbie instead, but she's just wearing cowboy boots."
"I have a cowboy too!" Bonnie boasted, eager for more admiration.
"I don't like boys. They're icky and smell bad," Imogen said prissily. "Girls are better at everything. Especially farming. All my ponies are girls."
"You have ponies?" Bonnie's eyes widened, and if either of them had cared to notice they would have seen that Jessie's did too.
"I got lots," the other girl said smugly. "I've got Melody, and Toolaroola, and Sweet Stuff, and Cheerilee and Buttons and Bright Eyes and I even have Diva!"
Bonnie was a little too young to understand the concept of sucking up, but instinctively she knew she had to curry favour with this girl to gain access to her fabulous array of ponies. After all, she only had Bullseye and Buttercup, and while they were perfectly nice horses they weren't of the calibre Imogen was used to. Bullseye was a rag doll and Buttercup a fairground prize. Imogen's ponies were actual, brand-name MLPs!
"Could I maybe play with one of your ponies some time? While you're playing with Jessie?" she asked tentatively.
"Like a swapsie? Sure! If you let me borrow your cowgirl for the weekend, I'll let you have two of my ponies. I'll even give you my special one!"
And so a deal was struck. And Bonnie was so excited that she didn't here Jessie desperately trying to stifle her own excited screams.
...
Woody cast a quick look around the room to see if he could slip anyone into his place in front of Jessie, but to no avail. They were all conveniently busy or not present. Hamm had briefly wandered by, but when Woody tried to make eye contact with him the porcelain porker had just scuttled past without looking at him. Buzz was skulking around, but that was no good because Jessie still wasn't speaking to him.
She hadn't stopped rambling on and on about the swapsie since she'd gotten home from Sunnyside. How could one person talk so much about one subject?
"...the Paradise Estate! Emily had the Paradise Estate too, except she lent it to her cousin and she set it on fire, but Imogen takes really good care of her toys! You can fit fifteen ponies in the Paradise Estate, except they have to be baby ponies..."
Woody sighed. His plastic ears ached. Buzz skulked up and tapped Jessie lightly on the shoulder.
"So, uh...these ponies...just how big are they?" he asked her.
If she'd heard him speak, she was doing an excellent job of pretending she hadn't.
"She's got DIVA, Woody! And dammit that is one fine horse! I got nothing against Barbie or nothin' but no horse that good was ever meant for a Barbie!"
Buzz's lips quivered a little. The last time Woody had seen him look so depressed he'd been wearing an apron and a kicky little hat. The cowboy felt sorry for his friend, even if he had brought this on himself.
"Well, the swap does sound like an excellent idea, give you a break from all this masculine energy for a while," said Woody. He tried to draw Buzz into the conversation. "Don't you agree, Buzz?"
Buzz opened his mouth gratefully to speak, but Jessie talked right over him.
"You know what? I'm gonna go wait in Bonnie's backpack. I'm too damn excited!"
She skipped away, yodelling cheerfully to herself all the while. Buzz slumped to the floor in despair.
"This is it, isn't it?" he said, more to himself than to Woody.
"This is what?" Woody asked.
"The end," Buzz moaned. "She's never coming back. She's going to go live with the ponies and become their queen and rule them with an iron fist, and I'll never see her again."
"For the love of...man up, Buzz!" Woody snapped. "I haven't seen such a cowardly countenance since you were Mrs Nesbit!"
"I thought we agreed never to mention that again," Buzz said flatly.
"The situation calls for it, little missy," Woody growled. "You get over there and apologize to her before she leaves, or the next time you see her she'll be leading an army of ponies against you."
Seeing the sense in his friend's advice and begrudgingly swallowing his pride, Buzz stood up, took a deep breath and marched over to the backpack to express his regret. And he would have said sorry too, had Bonnie not careened into the room at that moment to go to bed.
The next morning, Bonnie held her backpack on her lap all morning in a state of pure anticipation. Buzz lost his chance, and was destined to spend the whole day in a state of demented melancholy.
...
That evening, when Bonnie returned and dropped her backpack upstairs, the toys crowded around to meet the visitors and see what all this pony business was about. It took just one dainty hoof to shake its way out of the bag for them to be utterly charmed, and by the time the sparkling white pony had climbed out, shook her wings and tinsel-laden hair and beamed a gracious smile at her hosts, the entire room was bowled over.
"Good afternoon," the pony trilled in tones clear as a glass bell. "I am Princess Tiffany. It's a pleasure to be here." She even managed to curtsy.
Her companion struggled a little with exiting the bag, but she stepped out onto the bed with grace equal to Princess Tiffany. She affected a deeper curtsy, dipping to touch her nose delicately to the bedspread. She was pale blue with bright yellow hair and a spiral horn on her forehead.
"My name is Sunbeam. Thank you all for taking care of us this weekend."
The toys looked at each other. And then they practically fell over themselves to welcome and attend to the delightful new visitors. In a corner by himself, Buzz groaned loudly in despair.
If the ponies at Imogen's were anything like these two, Jessie was definitely never coming back.